Additional Arguments that Aboriginal Australians Observed Variable Stars
Did Aboriginal Australians notice that Betelgeuse is a variable star? Today’s paper provides additional evidence that they did.
Did Aboriginal Australians notice that Betelgeuse is a variable star? Today’s paper provides additional evidence that they did.
Today’s paper uses adaptive optics and polarized visible light to probe Betelgeuse’s secrets. These observations have lots to tell us about interactions among the star’s surface, the closest and most-recently-ejected clumps of gas, and brand new polarized dust.
Sometimes we see strange shapes when we look through our fancy telescopes and we’re left wondering how they formed. How did the rings and “pearls” of SN1987A form? Or the hexagonal cloud pattern on Saturn? The star Betelgeuse – famous for being Orion’s left shoulder – presents another unusual geometric appearance.